Peace Development Fund: Community Organizing Grants

Deadline: December 28, 2018

The Peace Development Fund (PDF) makes grants to community based organizations working for social justice. It believes that the change in values needed to establish a more just and peaceful world can come about only if it is strongly rooted in local communities that value the importance of building movements to create systemic social change. These are communities that view everyone, especially young people, as a vital force in the transformation of society. PDF recognizes young people’s ability to reshape society, not only politically, but also spiritually and culturally.

The Peace Development Fund is committed to supporting organizations and projects that recognize that peace will never be sustained unless it is based on justice and an appreciation of both the diversity and unity of the human family. It understands peace to be a consequence of equitable relationships—with fellow human beings and with the natural environment.

Funding priorities include:

Organizing to Shift Power: Groups that are creating a power base that can hold leaders accountable to the people who are affected by their decisions; groups that let their membership or constituents take the lead in collective action-planning and decision-making; and groups whose leadership comes directly from the people who are most affected by the issues they are organizing around.

Working to Build a Movement: Groups that organize in the local community, but make connections between local issues and a broader need for systemic change; groups that provide a space for members to develop their political analyses at the same time as taking action for change; groups that break down barriers within the progressive movement, by building strategic alliances between groups of different cultural or class backgrounds or different issue areas; and groups that explore the root causes of injustice and have a long-term vision for the kind of social change they are working for.

Dismantling Oppression: Groups and projects that are proactively engaged in a process of dismantling oppression, confronting privilege, and challenging institutional structures that perpetuate oppression (both internal and external to the organization); and groups that are proactively making connections between the different forms of oppression (racism, heterosexism, sexism, ageism, classism, ableism, etc.), and its connections with injustice.

Creating New Structures: Groups that have alternative organizational structures that allow power to flow “from the bottom up”; and efforts to create new, community-based alternative systems and structures (economic, political, cultural, religious, etc.) that are liberating, democratic, and environmentally sustainable and which promote healthy, sustainable communities.

Other Funding Priorities: New or emerging organizations; efforts that have difficulty securing funds from other sources; community organizations working on climate change issues at the local policy level; groups that have a genesis in Occupy, MeToo or Movement for Black Lives; collaborative peace initiatives led by women; or issues that are not yet recognized by progressive funders.

Amount: Awards range from $2,500-$10,000.

Eligibility: It is not necessary to have tax-exempt status to apply for a PDF grant. However, all funds provided by PDF must be used only to support activities that further the exempt purposes and activities of PDF. PDF does not fund individuals.